United Nations Security Council High-Level Open Debate, PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT - RESOLUTION 2417 (2018), Update on food security risks in the Sudan

Mr President, Distinguished Members of the Council, Excellencies,  
Ladies and Gentlemen, 

1. The scale of hunger across the Sudan is deeply concerning, with some areas, particularly in West and Central Darfur, likely to slide into catastrophic food insecurity as the lean season approaches in May.  
2. Conflict is driving this hunger crisis, restricting agricultural production, damaging major infrastructure and livelihoods, disrupting trade flows, causing severe price increases, constraining humanitarian access and driving large-scale displacement.  
3. The spread and escalation of fighting is directly impacting food security, especially as the conflict reaches new areas; hostilities are expanding across southeastern States (mainly Al Jazirah, Sennar and White Nile States), the Sudan’s breadbasket, which had grave consequences for the harvest of millet and sorghum that concluded in January. If fighting persists it will also disrupt harvesting operations of the irrigated wheat crop, normally gathered in March. 
4. The spread of conflict to Al Jazirah poses a significant threat to national food production, given that the State accounts for about 50 percent of wheat and 10 percent of sorghum, essential crops for the country. Additionally, Al Jazirah hosts the Gezira Scheme – the most important irrigation project to the Sudan and one of the largest in the world. 
5. It is estimated that 100 percent of the meat consumed in the Sudan and 90 percent of exported livestock is produced by smallholder pastoralists within the Kordofan and the Darfur regions. 
6. The economy of the Sudan is highly dependent on the agricultural sector, with nearly 65 percent of its population engaged in agriculture. 
7. Those who successfully produced food despite the conflict are quickly running through their reserves, those who rely on markets for food are struggling with steeply rising prices, and those depending on humanitarian assistance are increasingly hard to reach. 
8. By July 2023, just three months into the conflict, around 20.3 million people – or 42 percent of the population – were projected to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity (that is Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, Phases 3 or above), representing a 74 percent increase compared to the same time in 2022. 
9. During the recent harvest season, which runs from October to February and typically is a time of year when food is most available in the Sudan, an estimated 18 million people were expected to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity. That is the worst level of hunger ever recorded by the IPC during the harvest season. 
10. And the situation continues to deteriorate as the conflict nears the one-year mark.  
11. Areas with active conflict are recording the most highly food insecure populations. Nearly nine out of ten people facing emergency food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) in the Sudan are in conflict hotspots in the Darfur and Kordofan region, as well as Khartoum and Al Jazirah States, considered to be the conflict hotspots.  
12. With over 8 million people displaced, the Sudan is the world's largest displacement crisis. Not only do displaced people require urgent assistance to survive, but a large majority have left behind agriculture-based livelihoods, further disrupting food production within the country. Many are traveling with their livestock – a critical remaining asset for their survival.  
13. Hostilities have resulted in extensive damage, looting and destruction of critical infrastructure, the financial sector, and food and nutrition manufacturing facilities.  
14. The widespread disruption of crucial markets and transportation routes is leading to irregular deliveries, reduced quantities and varieties of goods, and pushing food prices steadily upwards.  
15. Excellencies,  
16. Yesterday (19 March 2024), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued its annual Crop and Food Supply Assessment Report for the Sudan, which examined food production in 2023 and assessed food supply throughout the 18 states of the country. The findings illustrate the damage being caused by conflict to agricultural production:  
    • The performance of the 2023 main cereal production season was very poor due to the impact of the conflict, at 46 percent below the harvests of the previous year.  
    • The sharpest reductions were recorded in the Greater Kordofan and in the Greater Darfur regions, where the conflict is particularly intense, and cereal production is estimated at up to 80 percent below-average. Alarmingly, in West Darfur State, widespread insecurity preventing farmers from accessing their fields, caused a total failure of the cropping season.    
    • Cereal import requirements in 2024, forecast at about 3.38 million tonnes, raise concerns about the financial and logistical capacity of the country to meet these import needs. 
    • The high production costs of cereals are likely to further inflate market prices, which are already at exceptionally high levels. In December 2023, prices of cereals were up to twice their already high levels of one year earlier.  
17. The outlook for food production in 2024 is bleak. Critical agricultural inputs are difficult to access as we near the 2024 main planting season. Damaged and perilous transport routes, destroyed markets and a lack of cash to buy those inputs mean many farmers will not plant this year, further fueling food shortages in the year ahead.  
18. Simultaneously, conflict has reduced the availability of and access to veterinary services, limited access to water and pasture in some areas, and disrupted seasonal migrations, all resulting in reduced livestock production, a critical source of nutrition and income across the country. Consequently, this is likely to increase already high malnutrition rates among vulnerable children. 
19. Excellencies,  
20. A peaceful and negotiated political solution and immediate cessation of hostilities to facilitate the delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance is an essential first step in eliminating a risk of famine. 
21. I join my colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in calling on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. That includes safeguarding vital infrastructure and services needed for food production, including functioning markets, crops, food stocks, livestock and all agricultural assets, irrigation systems, and more.  
22. Safe and sustained humanitarian access must urgently be restored to all in need of lifesaving assistance, especially to areas that have been almost completely cut off and where the risk of catastrophe is particularly high, such as the Darfur states.  
23. Where farmers can access land and inputs, they will produce food. Last year, FAO's rapid scaling up of seed distribution inputs enabled 1 million farmers to produce enough food to feed over 13 million people for a year, even in the midst of fighting. As the season nears, time-sensitive and life-saving agricultural assistance is crucial to tackle the hunger crisis. But funds to do so must come now so that we can get urgent aid to millions of people in the Sudan. And this is why we call on donors to fund time critical and urgent agriculture activities to avoid worsening food security in the next 6-9 months. 
24. Excellencies,  
25. I thank the Council again for its attention to the critical food security situation in the Sudan.  
26. I have said it before in this Council and I will say it again, the Right to Food is a basic human right. 
27. Thank you.